Dark Jedi Rising
by Morion
Summary: Follow the former Jedi Knight Correv Morion down his path of the Dark Side, and his battles with friend, foe, and the inner turmoil he faces as he must choose between the woman he loves...or the vengeful path of the Dark Side...


Prologue -

            A gust from the top level of a rising skyscraper sent Correv Morion's dark grey cloak fluttering about in the wind. It's long, clothed back whipped about in the chaos of the upper jet stream as he stood silently, overlooking the vast cityscape that lie beneath in the fog below him. He basked in the twilight of the pale moonlight from high in the night sky as he stood waiting. Only the very tops of the highest buildings reached this far above the fog layer; he was only a mere two kilometers vertically from the planet's surface. 

            The building on which he stood was an older, yet still highly used, shipping dock used for the mass transportation of the consumables and machinery that were transported planet wide, and also to and from the Outer Rim. He stood, reverently and encloaked, as he waited ever patient for the arrival of a small civilian transport...a freighter that carried a most precious cargo. His cargo. _Not much longer_, Morion thought to himself. A faint smile curled about his lips, his face hidden behind the large grey hood from his cloak.

            He felt a ripple in the Force and he knew that the transport was finally near. _Show time_, Morion thought to himself as he took a single step forward in anticipation. The small Correlian transport exposed itself as it broke through the cloud layer from above and descended toward the landing pad. The ship's landing lights sprang to life as the three small landing skids extended from underneath it's flat spherical hull as it hovered above the surface of the landing pad. Morion could hear the strain of the vertical repulsor array slowing the transport's descent as it touched down on the pad. A long boarding ramp extended slowly and several hydro valves hissed as they released the pressure from lowering down the ramp.

            Although his eyes were hidden behind the hood, an evil gleamed about in his eyes, a gleam of pleasure as a figure emerged from the freighter. "And now the fun begins," Morion spoke softly to himself as he began to advance forward. With a slight brush of his right hand, he parted his cloak and let it flow freely behind him as he walked slowly toward the silhouette. As the cloak frenzied about behind him, a glimmer of light came from his torso, the chromatic sheen of some unseen object that was attached to his belt.

            The figure that had emerged from the transport suddenly turned about in Morion's direction, the Force had alerted him to his presence. Morion could have used the Dark Side to cloak himself from being detected by his quarry, but it was of no consequence. He wanted him to know he was lurking somewhere in the shadowy darkness. 

            His quarry stepped into the light of the transport's docking lights as Morion came into view from out of the darkness. The humanoid that had exited the Correlian ship was clad in a light earth tone brown, with black boots and a simple white cloak wrapped about his body. The man, a young male perhaps in his early twenties, had short blonde hair, and as Morion already knew, sported a lone lightsaber which he had now drawn to his right hand. His cargo had now arrived; his quarry...was a Jedi. 

            Morion emerged from the darkness into the light shed from the transport as he watched the young Jedi drop into the Striking Bantha defensive posture as he recognized Morion. Morion grinned demonically as a green blade of plasma extended outward from the Jedi's lightsaber hilt. "Morion," the young Jedi said sternly, "I have no quarrel with you. Please, leave me be." 

            Morion pushed back the hood from his face and let it fall behind him, his cloak still swaying in the strong wind. Morion's jet black, spiked hair almost faded away against the ebony backdrop of darkness, his green eyes radiating with the Dark Side. "Now, now Zabrin," Morion spoke mockingly as he smiled, "you didn't think I was going to let you get all the way back to Coruscant _alive _now did you?" A look of anger crossed the Jedi's face as Morion chuckled in delight, and Zabrin began to lean forward, preparing to attack. "I don't want to fight you Morion," Zabrin spoke softly in a pleading tone of voice, "but I will defeat you if we battle here."

            "Well in that case," Morion grinned sadistically, "Let's dance...you and I." Zabrin then charged forward and swung his lightsaber toward Morion in a long horizontal arc. Morion dodged quickly to the left as Zabrin turned about quickly for another strike. Morion grinned in enjoyment as Zabrin came about with another forward attack as Morion jumped high into the air, using the Force in assistance, and landed behind Zabrin as he turned toward Morion once again.

            Zabrin dropped back into the Striking Bantha and glared at Morion, his green lightsaber glowing in the dark night that surrounded them. "Come on Brin," Morion chuckled as he taunted the young Jedi, "is that the best you can do? You're fighting like a frightened little Padawan." Zabrin lunged with his lightsaber toward Morion as he again dodged the beam of focused plasma, laughing all the while, but this time the blade caught the edge of Morion's cloak and sliced off the corner with a sizzle, and the scent of burning material filled the air. 

            "I had to kill a good sith for this cloak you pathetic Jedi," Morion smirked in anger as Zabrin's rage blazed and he unleashed a flurry of lightsaber strikes at Morion. Morion brought his hands up swiftly and deflected the beams with strange, shining metallic bracers he wore around each wrist. Zabrin struck from the left, and then used his momentum to spin around and attack again with a diagonal sweep and then a quick thrust. Morion again blocked with his silver bracers and then brought up his right hand, palm outward, toward Zabrin as he used the Force to knock him back and hard onto the ground.

            The green blade from Zabrin's lightsaber extinguished as he fell and landed on the Ferro Crete landing pad a few meters away from Morion. Morion, still holding his palm toward Zabrin, turned his hand slowly about and used the Force to grip Zabrin's lightsaber and pull it from his grasp as Zabrin lie winded on the ground.

            Morion examined his new bracers as he twisted them and snugged them on more tightly. He laughed slightly. "Mandalorian Iron," he said pleasurably with a grin on his face, "light as a feather yet dense enough to withstand the direct abuse from any lightsaber blade or blaster shot. Such marvelous creations the sith have, and so handy at that."

            The lightsaber hovered in mid-air in front of Zabrin as he slowly brought himself to his feet. Still slightly out of breath from being knocked back, He stood firmly as Morion began to chuckle again. "I don't want to kill you Morion," Zabrin said harshly as his anger began to get the best of him touching briefly on the Dark Side. Morion only smirked at him.

            Morion's eyes darkened in anger as he let the Dark Side flow within him. "Oh really," Morion spoke in a sarcastic tone, and then a voice of deeply rooted evil came forth as the expression on his face turned to hatred, "...you first." Morion sent forth small tendrils of the Force and ignited the bright green blade of Zabrin's lightsaber as it hovered in mid-air and in one flowing movement, the lightsaber sliced diagonally down Zabrin's cheek and whipped with blinding speed around and sliced the opposite side as well. Zabrin screamed in agony as the white hot blade instantly cauterized the wounds on his face.

            As Zabrin fell screaming to his knees, Morion could do nothing more than smile. Zabrin toppled from his knees onto the landing pad as he held his face and cried out in pain.  Morion thrust his hand upward and, still using his Force grip on Zabrin's lightsaber, flung it vertically in the air.

            Morion's hand dropped to his belt and with unseen motions, a dark purple shaft of glowing plasma extended from a lightsaber hilt which he now held in hand. With a smooth, fluid motion he sliced Zabrin's lightsaber perfectly down its center and the two halves shattered as they smashed onto the landing pad as Morion dropped the end of the blade to his side.

            "I spare you only so that you may bring a message to your pathetic Jedi Order," Morion spoke in a stern and hateful voice. Zabrin, using the Force to sooth his pain and begin healing his wounds, turned to face Morion from the ground as he still shuddered in shock. 

            Morion bent down and grabbed Zabrin by the tunic and lifted him into the air off of his feet. He didn't even need the aid of the Force to lift the weak Jedi up. "Tell them," Morion said face-to-face with an angry tone in his voice, "that they will die at my hands..." and Morion brought Zabrin's face closer to his own, "…the Dark Jedi are rising once again."

            Morion tossed Zabrin to the ground as he deactivated the dark purple blade and began to walk away. He had had his fun with the Jedi, and now he was through...for now. The cloak flowed freely behind Morion as Zabrin rose unsteadily to his feet. Zabrin raised his right hand toward Morion, focusing all that he had ever known and had been taught and felt himself being enveloped by the Force, becoming one with it. Zabrin released his fear, his emotion, and focused on his soul, on the Force, on the moment, and on Morion. He let the Force focus itself as he fell deeply within the Force's grasp, he could feel it becoming alive. The Force was materializing.

            A small crackle of electricity began to charge around his hand. Suddenly, he thrust the powerful white bolt of Force lightning toward Morion. The electricity bathed the landing pad in bright radiant light as it screamed toward its target in the darkness.

            Morion simply lifted his right hand, not even looking back toward Zabrin, or the onslaught of the Force lightning, and as he let the Dark Side flow within him he used it to take hold of his lightsaber and it flew toward the lightning. The purple beam activated in mid-air just in time to intercept and absorb the electricity, and with a slight gesture from fingers, the lightsaber flew with blinding speed toward Zabrin and in one fluid motion, severed the Jedi's raised right hand at the wrist.

            The lightsaber then returned to its master's hand and Morion calmly clipped it back onto his belt as he continued to walk away. Zabrin screamed once again in agony, and Morion stopped and glanced back toward him as Zabrin began to whimper pathetically. Morion grinned evilly and let the Dark Side envelop him, and through the darkness, he disappeared into the shadows...


End file.
